Personally, I believe the cuts to the Air Marshalls and lack of Airport security may be a clever ploy to enduce another terrorist attack through which he can justify another attack on another defenseless nation like Libya.
There are other proposed applications for the technology, including moving a space station between orbits.
Two problems with this.
First, the space station is in HIGH earth orbit. The required cable would be quite long AND extert a fair amount of drag. The rocket power required to BOOST the the cable to the station would be more than delivering the obvious to the station: rocket fuel.
Second, electricity does not make propulsion. Some more advanced technology would be necessary to turn electricity into propulsion. Dragging something with a wire is a lot different than PUSHING something with a wire. I guess it would have to be a really STIFF wire.
Beyond that, I would suspect that SOLAR power could be used to generate a LOT more electricity. Furthermore, deploying a solar sail and the correct orientation could effectivly drag a station into a higher orbit. In one orbit, it wouldn't do much, but over the course of hundreds of orbits, it would probably do pretty well. Whether it would be cheaper than PORF (Plain Old Rocket Fuel) would need analysis.
Your also forgetting it's uses in destroying delicate electrical equipment. This is actually a fairly serious concern for the space elevator, grounding the line.
Oh yeah, one other great use for static electricty is power time machines indicentally teathered to clock towers (Back to the Future):-) Lighting is a massive manifestation of static electricity.
Actually, the most heat intensive area is high in the atmoshpere where the air is thin. The flight characteristics become less like aerodynamics and more like sandblasting. The SR-1 Blackbird was designed to diffuse terrific amounts of heat and was reportedly 6-inches longer in full flight than on the ground.
For satellite transportation, I'm sure that 2-3 day transit times would be more than acceptable givin the vastly decreased risk.
Actually, you don't have to use the cable for propulsion. All you have to do is harness the energy of the descending elevator in order to propel the ascending elevator.
The envisioned plan doesnn't have two "shafts". Nor do I believe such a arrangement would be possible.
Rather the designers have envisioned a laser based power transmission system. The moveable platform would likely contain a nuclear reactor to power a very powerful laser. The laser would be beamed to the climber which would contain a receiver that converted the intense laser light into elecotricity.
Of course adaptive optics used by the miliatary for exotic anti-missle systems would probably be necessary to hit the spot accurately on a rapidly ascending climber. Additionally, the ribbon cable would also likely be "flapping" in the air so a sophisticated tracking system would be necessary.
As you've pointed out, the descent stage needs no power. However, apparantly venting heat will be a problem at high speeds.
The material science will likely need a lot of work. However, I don't believe that the auto industry will invent the necessary processes. Rather, I believe that the defense industry will invent the processes to turn raw carbon into super-light, super-tough armor for aircraft, ships and tanks.
The last century was the century of steel. The next century will be the century of carbon. Remember the new diamond sythesis techniques that are currently practical. Expect a lot of work in these areas.
Once the possibility for a plethora of cheap satellites are built for 500 channels of HDTV and unlimited satellite broadband, I think the public will "buy in".
Also, the space elevator would make NASA and Congress's lofty "inter-planetary" goals feasible by eliminating the costliest and most dangerous process, launch.
High altitude launches are certainly an option to consider especially for NASA's new space "escort" vehicle. However, for the heavy lift requirements of the initial "spool" ground launch would probably be the most feasible option.
NASA is exploring other options like a MAG-LEV assist launcher for satellites. Basically, you would shoot the rocket into the air like a bullet before you ignited the main engines. Rockets don't behave nicely on the launch pad and they waste a lot of fuel while going full blast and tethered to the launch tower.
Why democrats are wasting time with this type of legislation is beyond me. We have far more serious concerns right here in the USA. Stop worrying about Mars. START worrying about your constituents right.
Mitnick was what we would call a "habitual offender". Mitnick was a menace. Sure it was a thrill, but he already did time for thieving source code.
There are hackers out there that are misunderstood. Captain Crunch broke a ridiculously stupid security scheme by an arrogant monopoly. RTM made a math mistake in his worm that caused it to go haywire. Mitnick was a menace. He'd been sent to prison once for various crimes. He didn't learn.
Actually, I believe that sneaking into a movie theatre is considered trespassing, not stealing. Likewise, I think this is a case of trespassing as well.
In order to assign damages, one has to actually show damage. It can be argued in this case, that the person helped companies AVOID damages from more malevolent individuals.
I think there definitely needs to be a statute for "good samaritan" hacking. Poking holes in stupid security should not be a crime so long as you notify an organization that you've done it.
Lately, we've had a spree of journalists sneaking into airports through supposedly "tight" security. As it turns out, tight security at airports is just lip service. The ability for whistle blowers to poke wholes in curtains of smoke is a fundamental service to society.
Hopefully, Congress will realize this at some point and pass statutes that will idemnify white hat hackers (electronic or otherwise) as long as they don't cause damage or alert responsible parties as to their findings.
Ultimately, perhaps the white-hats need to form an online newspaper so that they can claim "journalistic" protection the same way airport hackers have.
Actually, he's pretty close to keeping his ilk in charge FOREVER. They're putting electronic voting machines in place that completely wash away any trace of a physical voting record. The machines are made by big time conservative backers and giant holes have already been noted in the security and accuracy of their machines.
The other great scam that they're enacting is Florida style "voter cleansing". In this case, cleansing is mostly bleaching color out of the skin of the voter roles. In the 2000 election, Florida "mistakenly" cleansed 57,700 voters from the voter roles under the pretense that they were "felons". The contractor, DBT Online, was paid 2.3 million (selected over a $5,700 bid) to cross-check records with thousands of public databases. In addition they were supposed to verify their results by making phone calls.
DBT Online was subsequently ordered by Florida officials NOT to do the checks. They also ordered DBT Online (in return for their $2.3 million dollar high-ball bid) to produce partial matches and transposed names.
Our democracy is silently slipping into tyranny. Time to fight back!!!!
An excellent compromise would be the "auto-gyro" concept from the last round of "shuttle replacements". Of course that round was for a single piece craft that would take off and land complete in science-fiction.
The auto-gyro concept would effectively allow the craft to behave like a traditional capsule. After re-entry it would deploy rotors and perform an auto-gyro landing upon land.
I'm glad to see NASA break down and give up on the "Buck Rogers" fantasy. The "re-usable" vehicle has turned out to be a LOT more expensive then the disposable one.
The deal north of the Mason-Dixon line is that once you've served your debt to society, your pardoned and can vote again. However the legacy of the Jim Crow south is still kickin albeit a shadow of it's former self.
You see, the south used to disenfranchise blacks of their voting rights (among other less subtle methods) by convicting them of manufactured crimes. A black man in a southern court used to have the same chance of a snowball in hell. They would then send these "felons" off to work camps where they would perform all kinds of work assignments and were often contracted out to private industries. This was the replacement for slavery (albit pale) and existed well into the 20th century.
The legacy of this is that you have tens of thousands of old black codgers in the south who cannot vote EVER. The reason, they were found in the wrong place at the wrong time sometime in 1950. Not only were they unjustly robbed of their civil freedom and put into forced labor camps, upon release they were premanently stripped of their right to vote.
It was not accidental, it was by design. More blacks convicted, more free state labor (less taxes for white folk), less black people voting, it was a Jim Crowe heaven.
The permanent ban on freed felons exist today. Fear not, they have procedures to return voting rights to reformed felons. You can ASK the governers politely to return you voting rights. In states where blacks were often lynched to keep them from voting, this is a hollow promise that is often DANGEROUS at best.
The south is remarkably reformed from the apartheid that existed before the 1960s. But the artifacts of the Jim Crowe south still survive. The prohibition against felons who have served their time is one of them.
Had you read his book as I did, you would discover.
1) He is an American who exiled himself to Britain and then subsequently exiled himself back to the US.
2) ChoicePoint was commisioned on a high-ball bid by Katherine Harris working on behalf of Jeb Bush. Remember, Katherine Harris was wearing two hats at the time. The first hat was the supreme impartial jurist of Florida election law. The second hat was the Florida campaign head for Jeb Bush's brother. Even a crackpot neo-con couldn't dismiss a conflict of interest without a chuckle.
ChoicePoint was paid a FUCKLOAD of money over their $5700 competitor. You would think that someone would get something in return for that. Is it no wonder that the list came up with 50,000 registered voters who WERE NOT convicted of felonies in florida, and virtually all blacks and democrats.
3) Greg Palast spends a fair amount of time railing against the sins of Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Blind partisans typically stick to throwing stones at the other sides like the metamorphic chameleonic Rush Limbaugh.
If you cater to a socioeconomic group with a high number of felons in it, then I'm sorry... get a higher-quality constituency. People who consistently violate the law, particularly in a violent fashion, SHOULDN'T vote... they don't respect society's mores and laws, so why should society feel an obligation to cut them any slack in regards to their vote, especially if they haven't yet payed their debt to society? After they rehabilitate themselves, pay their debt to society, and the court has decided to restore their civil rights, fine... before then, no way.
You didn't get the point. The list was basically inteneded to target groups of individuals that tended to vote democratic. The vast majority of the list was completely FALSE. They identified individuals with "close" names and scrubbed them from the roles.
The database contracter was paid $2.3 million to cross-check their info against public databases. They were also supposed to make phone calls verifying that the people identified by name and address WAS INDEED the individuals who were supposed felons. But they were subsequently told NOT to do the quality checks they were paid for by the Jeb Bush administration.
Individuals targeted by the list were told they HAD TO prove they weren't a felon. As if someone who was never convicted of a crime would have certificates to that effect on hand.
Last point, how did ChoicePoint know how to choose blacks and democrats for "deletion" over other groups??? Simple, it's part of their voter registration. The exact formulas ChoicePoint used are "trade secrets". So we really can't tell what the SQL statement looked like.
Thats why I said that "FELONS" in Florida politics is a code word for "minorities and democrats".
Sounds like a Facist plan to me. Your guilty until proven innocent. You can only vote if you vote for us.
Although one can deduce from fascist language implicit Social Darwinist assumptions about human nature, the need for community and authority in human society, and the destiny of nations in history, fascism does not base its claims to validity on their truth. Fascists despise thought and reason, abandon intellectual positions casually, and cast aside many intellectual fellow-travelers. They subordinate thought and reason not to faith, as did the traditional Right, but to the promptings of the blood and the historic destiny of the group. Their only moral yardstick is the prowess of the race, of the nation, of the community. They claim legitimacy by no universal standard except a Darwinian triumph of the strongest community.
This sounds like a pretty good description of a neo-conservative. I'm pretty sure the "F" word is right on. Note, I'm not saying all Republican's are neo-cons. Rather that the party has been high-jacked by Neo-Cons.
The NORC data did not "count" votes. This was the great con. All they did was note the condition of undercounted ballots:
For example:
"Voter puched the 'Al Gore' punch. Voter emphasized the vote by CIRCLING the punch. Voter further empasized their intention by writing AL GORE on the ballot. Cannot count as Al Gore because we're not counting."
The Miami Herald did a similar study that actually COUNTED the ballots and found Al Gore the winner.
The true story of the election can be found at www.gregpalast.com. Yes, Greg Palast DOES have an axe to grind. He hates liars and hypocrites. The first two chapters of "The Best Democracy Money" is available their.
To summarize: DBT Online/ChoicePoint was selected as a high-ball at $2.3 million dollars. The company who had previously did the job charged $5700.
They were supposed to record cross-checking against public databases and verification phone calls. They did none of this. They were instructed NOT TO.
ChoicePoint was instructed to search for similar names and reduced Jack to John etc... It was supposed to create the maximum number of matches provided the individuals.
The County offices were ORDERED to scrub everyone on the list without doing verification because ChoicePoint was SUPPOSED to have done that verification.
" The State of Florida was content with a partial match of four: names( the first four letters were good enough), ate of birth, gender and race. Not even the address or state mattered in the mad dash to maximize the number of citizens stripped of their civil rights." - The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, p56
Of course you probably listen to Rush. AS if he hastened spent 6 hours a day grinding axes for the last 15 years.
People who want more and more power aren't in general Democrats (though times are changing). Democracy is about the dispersion of power and influence.
The $300 million dollar campaign of George Bush was about SOMETHING. They didn't make that cash by having $10 per plate barbecues. They got that money from coporate fat cats.
By the way, you don't get to be a super-corporate fat cat by being fair to your fellow employee and fellow citizen. You get to those positions by well placed daggers (proverbial) in the backs of your peers and the occasional supervisor (when you can manage it). You get to that place by selling as much as you can for as much as you can for the smallest cost (which means it's often shit). You get to that position by laying of workers, slashing benefits, importing foreign identured servants, busting unions and all around just being plain evil.
After a full day of wholesale theft, who do you turn to protect your bounty. Do you turn to Democrats who (used to) believe in a fair society by which you pay for public services according to your means. Those same democrats often provide low-cost or no-charge services that compete with your schemes to fleece every dime possible. Those damn democrats and progressives try very hard to keep large corporations from selling $1,000 toilet seats to the Pentagon.
Or do I give money to Republicans. Not honest ones (though there are few remaining). Rather, do they give money to the neo-cons who have now publicly stated their goal to merge large corporate America and government. Corporate governance (formerly called Facism). If I give them lots of money, they will slash those pesky environmental laws that stop us from dumping toxic waste in rivers. They will allow us to rape the landspace AND WORKERS. They will turn aside when we fleece Americans. They will overturn liability and tort laws by which consumers sue us for selling them faulty dangerous products.
Hmmm... if I'm a greedy evil rat bastard with a contempt for humanity, who do I choose to donate to. Well at $300 million to $30 million, I dare-say that the evil rat bastards have chosen the neo-cons.
Now the rat-bastards are finding ways to dispense with the even more troublesome DEMOCRACY. Voters will get pissed off. After all, once upon a time their was a robber barons paradise that but dangerous chemicals into the milk itself. Then their was a great depression and many of those who counted themselves among the elite few were cannabalized by their superiors. Sent out to the bread lines by the common rabble. But the common rabble could still vote. And they voted for an Roosevelt.
My gosh, didn't that Roosevelt's cousin also pass the first anti-trust legislation. Isn't that they war hero who led a rebellion against the elitist Republican party and subsequently crushed as a progressive. Didn't those victorious Republicans lead us to our paradise of an enslaved population. Damn what will this Roosevelt do????
Of course, Roosevelt brought about the new Deal. Eventually embraced by most (including the Grand Old Party) up and until Eisenhower. The last great Republican warned us upon departure of the Miliatary-Industrial complex and other such corporate mischief. Against he pursuit of war and strife for the benefit of a few fat cats. The same Business-Government environment that brought Adolf Hitler to power and the world to the brink of utter disaster.
Now we sit with a government being literally run by the corporat thiefs. They are governed by a president unelected by the people (like Adolf Hitler). He is determined to de-regulate EVERYTHING. To diminish the people great institution DEMOCRACY to a sham game. Adolf Hitler never stopped elections. And he never stopped winning.
Here and now the Neo-Cons (Facists) are trying to permanently rob America of democracy without robbing us of elections. They fix them through culling voting rolls of so-called "felons" and fix the voting machines to vote a Neo-Con every
The massive neo-con conspiracy was born in the 50s and has plodded along silently ever since. Players have come and gone, but the goal has been the same.
Destroy the power of the people against those who want to own EVERYTHING. Destory those who oppose the super-rich and the super-elite.
Break down the Eisenhower rules against monopolization (both Eisenhowers). Destroy laws designed to protect consumers against big business gouging and abuse (the FDA, tort law, product safety laws). Return the utilities to a condition where they can once again mercilessly gouge the public for basic living services (successfuly accomplished in California, Britain, India and other US states).
Destroy the power of organized labor. Destroy the 40-hour work week (successfully accomplished just recently). Create permanently high unemployment and a subservient labor force (they getting damn close). Destroy the public welfare services that compete with industry gouging.
Destroy environmental laws that are benificial to both the public health AND the goal of high unemployment. Environmental responsiblity requires more employees, therefore it's bad. Strip mining, clear cutting, toxic waste dumping and other practices require very little labor, therefore it's good to those seeking to steal EVERYTHING!!!
Retun the media to centralized domination by an elite few. Buy up all the papers, radio stations and other media outlets. Force "alternative" papers out of distribution outlets through city ordinances (licensing paper boxes), corporate connections (refusing to sell papers), and other financial shenanigans. Repeal laws against complete media ownership within municipalities (mission accomplished by Michael Powell). Then convince everyone that the media that they own has a "liberal bias". Then present "fair and balanced" alternatives (Rush Limbaugh, Laura Schlesinger, Fox News) that present the "fair, balanced and objective" story.
Neo-cons cast their opponents as communists tree-huggers, nazis, fags, and any other ad-hominen attack they can think of. The irony is they intentionally give them labels that they know most appropriately describe themselves. I believe the lady dost protest too much!!!!
Too suggest that they are super-highly organized is a mistake. They would dagger their own partners to their own advantage just as sure as they would poison our water-supply and drive us out of our jobs.
Their ultimate coups-de-gras is convincing middle America that they are included in the club. That is the master-stroke of convining a majority of America to disenfrachise itself. YOU are special, YOU are exceptional, YOU are better than everyone else. Join us, take power over your neighbors and those you you consider under yourself. In turn compete to opress your peers and become even greater amongst our clique. We know you can do it. We'll even stake you a little money. The one who steals the most gets bonus money.
America is quietly slipping into a facist dictatorship. The "quality" black-box voting machines beyond paper-trails and auditing is the next master-step to destroying democracy. We become more like Rome every day. Time to fight back!!!!!
Well, if they sold the "ballots", then they could say
"The paper ballots gauruntees that the system can't be hacked wholesale. Therefore, our electronic voting system is superior to others that leave no assurances to the voting public that their elections our somewhat superior to those held in Cuba."
But they're really not interested in that. The whole point of centralized voting roles and black-box voting is to put the ballot box under the thumbs of the neo-cons who really don't give a shit about democracy. They just want to own EVERYTHING including your body.
The neo-con think-tanks our very good at thinking up ways of getting middle America to disenfranchise themselves. They've long since given up telling the truth about their elitist aristocratic viewpoint. They assign all their own true virtues to their opponents over the media that THEY OWN!!!! Then they call their own media outlets LIBERAL so that any negative story about neo-cons will be distrusted and any unfounded rumour about their opponents will be embraced.
Our country is quitely slipping into a facist dictatorship. Time to fight back!!!!!!
We also must not forget about "unfunded government" in the same realm of unfunded mandates. This is when regulation (or lack thereof) allows private entities to gouge the public, slash their pay, steal their pensions and then escape without a scratch. The payola goes back it terms of:
* political contributions * stock options (after leaving government) * board appointments * cushy jobs for relatives * $6 million severance packages (Halliburton, KBR and Dick Cheney) * nice cushy jobs after leaving office * giant contributions to "think tanks" whose job is thinking of ways to pursuade middle America to disenfranchise itself (successfully) * entry into the new aristocracy
Democrats have no been corrupted by the mostly and thoroughly corrupt Republicans. Time for something new. The Greens are nice, but we need an analog party with sensible economics but also more traditional values that will appeal more readily to midwesterners.
Our democracy is slipping into a facist dictatorship. Time to fight back!!!!
The irony is that you could effectively mix the two systems.
The selection can be made on easy use, versatile touch screen machines. The machine would then PRINT in plain english "or spanish or whatever" the elections and the voters CHOICES in a standardized format. The ballots themselves would be printed on durable, water-marked, pre-serialized paper.
After voting, the complete printed ballot would appear in a plexiglass window for the voter to review. They would than choose to accept the complete ballot or re-vote. If the voter accepts the ballot it will be deposited face down in a locked, clear plexiglass container with the other accepted ballots. If it is rejected it will be cross-shredded and it's remains clearly deposited in a clear plexiglass container.
The voters will receive two receipts. One a named receipt from poll workers indicating that the person had voted. Another, an anonymous "voting receipt" with the serial number of their ballot. By procedure and law, no record or database will be able to link the two (two maintain the secret ballot).
When the polls close the voting machine will produce a list of the watermarked, serial-numbered and digitally signed ballots on both hologram faced CD-Rs (no rewritables) and clearly watermarked paper. The ballot signatures will authenticate that the ballots have not been tampered. The votes would then be counted by either automated scanning OCR machines or hand-counted. Any ballot rejected by the OCR reader will (by law) be manually counted, documented for quality control and included in the official tally. A ballot whose contents does not match the pre-printed serial and signature will be considered evidence of voter fraud. Also a ballot whose serial number is not contained in the vote summary will also be considered a potentially fraudulent vote and MUST be investigated.
After tabulation, all ballot information will be posted online. A voter will be able to use their anonymous "voter receipt" to again verify the content of their vote. If counting shows missing or destoyed ballots, the voters holding those receipts will be able to "re-vote" at their convenience.
And of course, in any evolved democracy, voting day should be a FEDERAL HOLIDAY. By law, no employee may work more than a 4-hour shift so EVERYONE CAN VOTE!!!!!!
Slashdot Mirror
The base is intended to be MOBILE so that they can navigate away from bad storms that could damage the cable or interrupt operations.
I would anticipate that such an operation would be nuclear powered. Shipping fuel to the vehicle would cost way too much.
Personally, I believe the cuts to the Air Marshalls and lack of Airport security may be a clever ploy to enduce another terrorist attack through which he can justify another attack on another defenseless nation like Libya.
By the time we're done it will be worth 100 space elevators. Mostly pumped into firms like Halliburton and Exxon Mobile.
There are other proposed applications for the technology, including moving a space station between orbits.
Two problems with this.
First, the space station is in HIGH earth orbit. The required cable would be quite long AND extert a fair amount of drag. The rocket power required to BOOST the the cable to the station would be more than delivering the obvious to the station: rocket fuel.
Second, electricity does not make propulsion. Some more advanced technology would be necessary to turn electricity into propulsion. Dragging something with a wire is a lot different than PUSHING something with a wire. I guess it would have to be a really STIFF wire.
Beyond that, I would suspect that SOLAR power could be used to generate a LOT more electricity. Furthermore, deploying a solar sail and the correct orientation could effectivly drag a station into a higher orbit. In one orbit, it wouldn't do much, but over the course of hundreds of orbits, it would probably do pretty well. Whether it would be cheaper than PORF (Plain Old Rocket Fuel) would need analysis.
Your also forgetting it's uses in destroying delicate electrical equipment. This is actually a fairly serious concern for the space elevator, grounding the line.
:-) Lighting is a massive manifestation of static electricity.
Oh yeah, one other great use for static electricty is power time machines indicentally teathered to clock towers (Back to the Future)
Actually, the most heat intensive area is high in the atmoshpere where the air is thin. The flight characteristics become less like aerodynamics and more like sandblasting. The SR-1 Blackbird was designed to diffuse terrific amounts of heat and was reportedly 6-inches longer in full flight than on the ground.
For satellite transportation, I'm sure that 2-3 day transit times would be more than acceptable givin the vastly decreased risk.
Actually, you don't have to use the cable for propulsion. All you have to do is harness the energy of the descending elevator in order to propel the ascending elevator.
The envisioned plan doesnn't have two "shafts". Nor do I believe such a arrangement would be possible.
Rather the designers have envisioned a laser based power transmission system. The moveable platform would likely contain a nuclear reactor to power a very powerful laser. The laser would be beamed to the climber which would contain a receiver that converted the intense laser light into elecotricity.
Of course adaptive optics used by the miliatary for exotic anti-missle systems would probably be necessary to hit the spot accurately on a rapidly ascending climber. Additionally, the ribbon cable would also likely be "flapping" in the air so a sophisticated tracking system would be necessary.
As you've pointed out, the descent stage needs no power. However, apparantly venting heat will be a problem at high speeds.
The material science will likely need a lot of work. However, I don't believe that the auto industry will invent the necessary processes. Rather, I believe that the defense industry will invent the processes to turn raw carbon into super-light, super-tough armor for aircraft, ships and tanks.
The last century was the century of steel. The next century will be the century of carbon. Remember the new diamond sythesis techniques that are currently practical. Expect a lot of work in these areas.
Once the possibility for a plethora of cheap satellites are built for 500 channels of HDTV and unlimited satellite broadband, I think the public will "buy in".
Also, the space elevator would make NASA and Congress's lofty "inter-planetary" goals feasible by eliminating the costliest and most dangerous process, launch.
High altitude launches are certainly an option to consider especially for NASA's new space "escort" vehicle. However, for the heavy lift requirements of the initial "spool" ground launch would probably be the most feasible option.
NASA is exploring other options like a MAG-LEV assist launcher for satellites. Basically, you would shoot the rocket into the air like a bullet before you ignited the main engines. Rockets don't behave nicely on the launch pad and they waste a lot of fuel while going full blast and tethered to the launch tower.
Why democrats are wasting time with this type of legislation is beyond me. We have far more serious concerns right here in the USA. Stop worrying about Mars. START worrying about your constituents right.
Mitnick was what we would call a "habitual offender". Mitnick was a menace. Sure it was a thrill, but he already did time for thieving source code.
There are hackers out there that are misunderstood. Captain Crunch broke a ridiculously stupid security scheme by an arrogant monopoly. RTM made a math mistake in his worm that caused it to go haywire. Mitnick was a menace. He'd been sent to prison once for various crimes. He didn't learn.
Actually, I believe that sneaking into a movie theatre is considered trespassing, not stealing. Likewise, I think this is a case of trespassing as well.
In order to assign damages, one has to actually show damage. It can be argued in this case, that the person helped companies AVOID damages from more malevolent individuals.
I think there definitely needs to be a statute for "good samaritan" hacking. Poking holes in stupid security should not be a crime so long as you notify an organization that you've done it.
Lately, we've had a spree of journalists sneaking into airports through supposedly "tight" security. As it turns out, tight security at airports is just lip service. The ability for whistle blowers to poke wholes in curtains of smoke is a fundamental service to society.
Hopefully, Congress will realize this at some point and pass statutes that will idemnify white hat hackers (electronic or otherwise) as long as they don't cause damage or alert responsible parties as to their findings.
Ultimately, perhaps the white-hats need to form an online newspaper so that they can claim "journalistic" protection the same way airport hackers have.
Actually, he's pretty close to keeping his ilk in charge FOREVER. They're putting electronic voting machines in place that completely wash away any trace of a physical voting record. The machines are made by big time conservative backers and giant holes have already been noted in the security and accuracy of their machines.
The other great scam that they're enacting is Florida style "voter cleansing". In this case, cleansing is mostly bleaching color out of the skin of the voter roles. In the 2000 election, Florida "mistakenly" cleansed 57,700 voters from the voter roles under the pretense that they were "felons". The contractor, DBT Online, was paid 2.3 million (selected over a $5,700 bid) to cross-check records with thousands of public databases. In addition they were supposed to verify their results by making phone calls.
DBT Online was subsequently ordered by Florida officials NOT to do the checks. They also ordered DBT Online (in return for their $2.3 million dollar high-ball bid) to produce partial matches and transposed names.
Our democracy is silently slipping into tyranny. Time to fight back!!!!
An excellent compromise would be the "auto-gyro" concept from the last round of "shuttle replacements". Of course that round was for a single piece craft that would take off and land complete in science-fiction.
The auto-gyro concept would effectively allow the craft to behave like a traditional capsule. After re-entry it would deploy rotors and perform an auto-gyro landing upon land.
I'm glad to see NASA break down and give up on the "Buck Rogers" fantasy. The "re-usable" vehicle has turned out to be a LOT more expensive then the disposable one.
The deal north of the Mason-Dixon line is that once you've served your debt to society, your pardoned and can vote again. However the legacy of the Jim Crow south is still kickin albeit a shadow of it's former self.
You see, the south used to disenfranchise blacks of their voting rights (among other less subtle methods) by convicting them of manufactured crimes. A black man in a southern court used to have the same chance of a snowball in hell. They would then send these "felons" off to work camps where they would perform all kinds of work assignments and were often contracted out to private industries. This was the replacement for slavery (albit pale) and existed well into the 20th century.
The legacy of this is that you have tens of thousands of old black codgers in the south who cannot vote EVER. The reason, they were found in the wrong place at the wrong time sometime in 1950. Not only were they unjustly robbed of their civil freedom and put into forced labor camps, upon release they were premanently stripped of their right to vote.
It was not accidental, it was by design. More blacks convicted, more free state labor (less taxes for white folk), less black people voting, it was a Jim Crowe heaven.
The permanent ban on freed felons exist today. Fear not, they have procedures to return voting rights to reformed felons. You can ASK the governers politely to return you voting rights. In states where blacks were often lynched to keep them from voting, this is a hollow promise that is often DANGEROUS at best.
The south is remarkably reformed from the apartheid that existed before the 1960s. But the artifacts of the Jim Crowe south still survive. The prohibition against felons who have served their time is one of them.
Had you read his book as I did, you would discover.
1) He is an American who exiled himself to Britain and then subsequently exiled himself back to the US.
2) ChoicePoint was commisioned on a high-ball bid by Katherine Harris working on behalf of Jeb Bush. Remember, Katherine Harris was wearing two hats at the time. The first hat was the supreme impartial jurist of Florida election law. The second hat was the Florida campaign head for Jeb Bush's brother. Even a crackpot neo-con couldn't dismiss a conflict of interest without a chuckle.
ChoicePoint was paid a FUCKLOAD of money over their $5700 competitor. You would think that someone would get something in return for that. Is it no wonder that the list came up with 50,000 registered voters who WERE NOT convicted of felonies in florida, and virtually all blacks and democrats.
3) Greg Palast spends a fair amount of time railing against the sins of Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Blind partisans typically stick to throwing stones at the other sides like the metamorphic chameleonic Rush Limbaugh.
If you cater to a socioeconomic group with a high number of felons in it, then I'm sorry... get a higher-quality constituency. People who consistently violate the law, particularly in a violent fashion, SHOULDN'T vote... they don't respect society's mores and laws, so why should society feel an obligation to cut them any slack in regards to their vote, especially if they haven't yet payed their debt to society? After they rehabilitate themselves, pay their debt to society, and the court has decided to restore their civil rights, fine... before then, no way.
You didn't get the point. The list was basically inteneded to target groups of individuals that tended to vote democratic. The vast majority of the list was completely FALSE. They identified individuals with "close" names and scrubbed them from the roles.
The database contracter was paid $2.3 million to cross-check their info against public databases. They were also supposed to make phone calls verifying that the people identified by name and address WAS INDEED the individuals who were supposed felons. But they were subsequently told NOT to do the quality checks they were paid for by the Jeb Bush administration.
Individuals targeted by the list were told they HAD TO prove they weren't a felon. As if someone who was never convicted of a crime would have certificates to that effect on hand.
Last point, how did ChoicePoint know how to choose blacks and democrats for "deletion" over other groups??? Simple, it's part of their voter registration. The exact formulas ChoicePoint used are "trade secrets". So we really can't tell what the SQL statement looked like.
Thats why I said that "FELONS" in Florida politics is a code word for "minorities and democrats".
Sounds like a Facist plan to me. Your guilty until proven innocent. You can only vote if you vote for us.
Although one can deduce from fascist language implicit Social Darwinist assumptions about human nature, the need for community and authority in human society, and the destiny of nations in history, fascism does not base its claims to validity on their truth. Fascists despise thought and reason, abandon intellectual positions casually, and cast aside many intellectual fellow-travelers. They subordinate thought and reason not to faith, as did the traditional Right, but to the promptings of the blood and the historic destiny of the group. Their only moral yardstick is the prowess of the race, of the nation, of the community. They claim legitimacy by no universal standard except a Darwinian triumph of the strongest community.
This sounds like a pretty good description of a neo-conservative. I'm pretty sure the "F" word is right on. Note, I'm not saying all Republican's are neo-cons. Rather that the party has been high-jacked by Neo-Cons.
The NORC data did not "count" votes. This was the great con. All they did was note the condition of undercounted ballots:
For example:
"Voter puched the 'Al Gore' punch. Voter emphasized the vote by CIRCLING the punch. Voter further empasized their intention by writing AL GORE on the ballot.
Cannot count as Al Gore because we're not counting."
The Miami Herald did a similar study that actually COUNTED the ballots and found Al Gore the winner.
The true story of the election can be found at www.gregpalast.com. Yes, Greg Palast DOES have an axe to grind. He hates liars and hypocrites. The first two chapters of "The Best Democracy Money" is available their.
To summarize:
DBT Online/ChoicePoint was selected as a high-ball at $2.3 million dollars. The company who had previously did the job charged $5700.
They were supposed to record cross-checking against public databases and verification phone calls. They did none of this. They were instructed NOT TO.
ChoicePoint was instructed to search for similar names and reduced Jack to John etc... It was supposed to create the maximum number of matches provided the individuals.
The County offices were ORDERED to scrub everyone on the list without doing verification because ChoicePoint was SUPPOSED to have done that verification.
" The State of Florida was content with a partial match of four: names( the first four letters were good enough), ate of birth, gender and race. Not even the address or state mattered in the mad dash to maximize the number of citizens stripped of their civil rights."
- The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, p56
Of course you probably listen to Rush. AS if he hastened spent 6 hours a day grinding axes for the last 15 years.
Where do you think there donors get their money from? Where do you think that the $300 million came from.
If Democrats rely so much on the ultra-rich, why did Republicans get so much more cash? Follow the money.
People who want more and more power aren't in general Democrats (though times are changing). Democracy is about the dispersion of power and influence.
The $300 million dollar campaign of George Bush was about SOMETHING. They didn't make that cash by having $10 per plate barbecues. They got that money from coporate fat cats.
By the way, you don't get to be a super-corporate fat cat by being fair to your fellow employee and fellow citizen. You get to those positions by well placed daggers (proverbial) in the backs of your peers and the occasional supervisor (when you can manage it). You get to that place by selling as much as you can for as much as you can for the smallest cost (which means it's often shit). You get to that position by laying of workers, slashing benefits, importing foreign identured servants, busting unions and all around just being plain evil.
After a full day of wholesale theft, who do you turn to protect your bounty. Do you turn to Democrats who (used to) believe in a fair society by which you pay for public services according to your means. Those same democrats often provide low-cost or no-charge services that compete with your schemes to fleece every dime possible. Those damn democrats and progressives try very hard to keep large corporations from selling $1,000 toilet seats to the Pentagon.
Or do I give money to Republicans. Not honest ones (though there are few remaining). Rather, do they give money to the neo-cons who have now publicly stated their goal to merge large corporate America and government. Corporate governance (formerly called Facism). If I give them lots of money, they will slash those pesky environmental laws that stop us from dumping toxic waste in rivers. They will allow us to rape the landspace AND WORKERS. They will turn aside when we fleece Americans. They will overturn liability and tort laws by which consumers sue us for selling them faulty dangerous products.
Hmmm... if I'm a greedy evil rat bastard with a contempt for humanity, who do I choose to donate to. Well at $300 million to $30 million, I dare-say that the evil rat bastards have chosen the neo-cons.
Now the rat-bastards are finding ways to dispense with the even more troublesome DEMOCRACY. Voters will get pissed off. After all, once upon a time their was a robber barons paradise that but dangerous chemicals into the milk itself. Then their was a great depression and many of those who counted themselves among the elite few were cannabalized by their superiors. Sent out to the bread lines by the common rabble. But the common rabble could still vote. And they voted for an Roosevelt.
My gosh, didn't that Roosevelt's cousin also pass the first anti-trust legislation. Isn't that they war hero who led a rebellion against the elitist Republican party and subsequently crushed as a progressive. Didn't those victorious Republicans lead us to our paradise of an enslaved population. Damn what will this Roosevelt do????
Of course, Roosevelt brought about the new Deal. Eventually embraced by most (including the Grand Old Party) up and until Eisenhower. The last great Republican warned us upon departure of the Miliatary-Industrial complex and other such corporate mischief. Against he pursuit of war and strife for the benefit of a few fat cats. The same Business-Government environment that brought Adolf Hitler to power and the world to the brink of utter disaster.
Now we sit with a government being literally run by the corporat thiefs. They are governed by a president unelected by the people (like Adolf Hitler). He is determined to de-regulate EVERYTHING. To diminish the people great institution DEMOCRACY to a sham game. Adolf Hitler never stopped elections. And he never stopped winning.
Here and now the Neo-Cons (Facists) are trying to permanently rob America of democracy without robbing us of elections. They fix them through culling voting rolls of so-called "felons" and fix the voting machines to vote a Neo-Con every
The massive neo-con conspiracy was born in the 50s and has plodded along silently ever since. Players have come and gone, but the goal has been the same.
Destroy the power of the people against those who want to own EVERYTHING. Destory those who oppose the super-rich and the super-elite.
Break down the Eisenhower rules against monopolization (both Eisenhowers). Destroy laws designed to protect consumers against big business gouging and abuse (the FDA, tort law, product safety laws). Return the utilities to a condition where they can once again mercilessly gouge the public for basic living services (successfuly accomplished in California, Britain, India and other US states).
Destroy the power of organized labor. Destroy the 40-hour work week (successfully accomplished just recently). Create permanently high unemployment and a subservient labor force (they getting damn close). Destroy the public welfare services that compete with industry gouging.
Destroy environmental laws that are benificial to both the public health AND the goal of high unemployment. Environmental responsiblity requires more employees, therefore it's bad. Strip mining, clear cutting, toxic waste dumping and other practices require very little labor, therefore it's good to those seeking to steal EVERYTHING!!!
Retun the media to centralized domination by an elite few. Buy up all the papers, radio stations and other media outlets. Force "alternative" papers out of distribution outlets through city ordinances (licensing paper boxes), corporate connections (refusing to sell papers), and other financial shenanigans. Repeal laws against complete media ownership within municipalities (mission accomplished by Michael Powell). Then convince everyone that the media that they own has a "liberal bias". Then present "fair and balanced" alternatives (Rush Limbaugh, Laura Schlesinger, Fox News) that present the
"fair, balanced and objective" story.
Neo-cons cast their opponents as communists tree-huggers, nazis, fags, and any other ad-hominen attack they can think of. The irony is they intentionally give them labels that they know most appropriately describe themselves. I believe the lady dost protest too much!!!!
Too suggest that they are super-highly organized is a mistake. They would dagger their own partners to their own advantage just as sure as they would poison our water-supply and drive us out of our jobs.
Their ultimate coups-de-gras is convincing middle America that they are included in the club. That is the master-stroke of convining a majority of America to disenfrachise itself. YOU are special, YOU are exceptional, YOU are better than everyone else. Join us, take power over your neighbors and those you you consider under yourself. In turn compete to opress your peers and become even greater amongst our clique. We know you can do it. We'll even stake you a little money. The one who steals the most gets bonus money.
America is quietly slipping into a facist dictatorship. The "quality" black-box voting machines beyond paper-trails and auditing is the next master-step to destroying democracy. We become more like Rome every day. Time to fight back!!!!!
Well, if they sold the "ballots", then they could say
"The paper ballots gauruntees that the system can't be hacked wholesale. Therefore, our electronic voting system is superior to others that leave no assurances to the voting public that their elections our somewhat superior to those held in Cuba."
But they're really not interested in that. The whole point of centralized voting roles and black-box voting is to put the ballot box under the thumbs of the neo-cons who really don't give a shit about democracy. They just want to own EVERYTHING including your body.
The neo-con think-tanks our very good at thinking up ways of getting middle America to disenfranchise themselves. They've long since given up telling the truth about their elitist aristocratic viewpoint. They assign all their own true virtues to their opponents over the media that THEY OWN!!!! Then they call their own media outlets LIBERAL so that any negative story about neo-cons will be distrusted and any unfounded rumour about their opponents will be embraced.
Our country is quitely slipping into a facist dictatorship. Time to fight back!!!!!!
Yes,
We also must not forget about "unfunded government" in the same realm of unfunded mandates. This is when regulation (or lack thereof) allows private entities to gouge the public, slash their pay, steal their pensions and then escape without a scratch. The payola goes back it terms of:
* political contributions
* stock options (after leaving government)
* board appointments
* cushy jobs for relatives
* $6 million severance packages (Halliburton, KBR and Dick Cheney)
* nice cushy jobs after leaving office
* giant contributions to "think tanks" whose job is thinking of ways to pursuade middle America to disenfranchise itself (successfully)
* entry into the new aristocracy
Democrats have no been corrupted by the mostly and thoroughly corrupt Republicans. Time for something new. The Greens are nice, but we need an analog party with sensible economics but also more traditional values that will appeal more readily to midwesterners.
Our democracy is slipping into a facist dictatorship. Time to fight back!!!!
The irony is that you could effectively mix the two systems.
The selection can be made on easy use, versatile touch screen machines. The machine would then PRINT in plain english "or spanish or whatever" the elections and the voters CHOICES in a standardized format. The ballots themselves would be printed on durable, water-marked, pre-serialized paper.
After voting, the complete printed ballot would appear in a plexiglass window for the voter to review. They would than choose to accept the complete ballot or re-vote. If the voter accepts the ballot it will be deposited face down in a locked, clear plexiglass container with the other accepted ballots. If it is rejected it will be cross-shredded and it's remains clearly deposited in a clear plexiglass container.
The voters will receive two receipts. One a named receipt from poll workers indicating that the person had voted. Another, an anonymous "voting receipt" with the serial number of their ballot. By procedure and law, no record or database will be able to link the two (two maintain the secret ballot).
When the polls close the voting machine will produce a list of the watermarked, serial-numbered and digitally signed ballots on both hologram faced CD-Rs (no rewritables) and clearly watermarked paper. The ballot signatures will authenticate that the ballots have not been tampered. The votes would then be counted by either automated scanning OCR machines or hand-counted. Any ballot rejected by the OCR reader will (by law) be manually counted, documented for quality control and included in the official tally. A ballot whose contents does not match the pre-printed serial and signature will be considered evidence of voter fraud. Also a ballot whose serial number is not contained in the vote summary will also be considered a potentially fraudulent vote and MUST be investigated.
After tabulation, all ballot information will be posted online. A voter will be able to use their anonymous "voter receipt" to again verify the content of their vote. If counting shows missing or destoyed ballots, the voters holding those receipts will be able to "re-vote" at their convenience.
And of course, in any evolved democracy, voting day should be a FEDERAL HOLIDAY. By law, no employee may work more than a 4-hour shift so EVERYONE CAN VOTE!!!!!!